Dessert Shop • Shop Small: Traditional Asian Dessert • Live From: Flushing, Queens, NYC

“KULU stands for Keep Ur Life Unique. The general idea of the brand is to promote a wholesome new generation of desserts. We are trying to bring a new trend that strays from the traditional desserts, such as cheesecake or tiramisu, which are high in sugar and calories. Our goal is to make something that’s more healthy, but still tastes very good to the new young generations. So that’s the basic concept. Also you know, the trend nowadays is going for vegan and gluten free, and actually most of the desserts from Asia are all gluten free or vegan. It's a good way to promote this to the American culture.”

“I started KULU in 2011. The reason why I started is because my pastry chef, which is my partner Amanda, made a traditional Chinese Sweet Soup and it tasted very good. At that moment I thought ‘I could never find this in America, especially in New York’ and then I thought, ‘why don't I create this as a business in New York and have more people try this culture.’ You know Chinese desserts are not just a food; it's a culture. We eat it after dinner to rinse our bodies, to lower the fat, and lower the oils in the foods; it's something healthy. It's like the combination of fried chicken and beer; they just go together.”

“We have four locations and they’re are totally different locations. In the Brooklyn location, which is among the Asian community, people mostly know what we are selling; they are coming for something they know. In Queens there is a different variety of people, they mostly come to try new things. When I opened the Manhattan location two years ago, I was trying to test out the market. Our products are kind of weird, like Durian and sesame and it sounds very interesting to Americans. Many people come to try the Durian which is a smelly and spiky fruit with a soft center. It's always interesting to promote new things because desserts are always a trend, and we have to update all the time.”

“People are most interesting in the fresh fruit, we have some traditional Hot Mochi that is very popular actually, many people come to try that. One of my favorites would be the Black Sesame Paste. Not a lot of people know about this, but I traveled to almost all the main cities of China and tried out all of the famous Black Sesame Pastes. I would say that this recipe came out to be one of the best in the world. The whole process of making it was complicated. From choosing the sesame seeds to grinding, roasting, frying, blanding and then cooking; the whole process takes about three to four hours. The whole process takes a lot of skill and knowledge but it creates an overall great product.”